Voters across Washington State rejected the Democrats’ extreme agenda of raising taxes and making the state a safer place to be a criminal.  In an “advisory” vote, Washington residents strongly voted against the Democrats’ new state income tax on capital gains. Even normally crazy voters in Seattle rejected candidates who wanted to prolong the liberal agenda of defunding police departments and increasing taxes. Spokane voters elected a new employer-friendly candidate to the city council (and another one could still win). Tuesday’s elections provided many positive stories and a couple of disappointments. Shift recaps the election results and how they will impact politics in 2022. (Click to read full Shift Article)

Some Democrats and liberal organizations are seeking to remove public opinions from the legislative process by attempting to discredit the advisory votes on statewide ballots, largely because voters often disagree with the taxes imposed on them by Democrat lawmakers. The advisory votes are mandatory due to the passage of I-960 by the voters in 2007, which requires that a non-binding vote be taken after the legislature passes a tax increase. And just like this past week’s advisory vote #37, on the unconstitutional state income tax on capital gains (which 62.7% of Washington voters want repealed, as of today), often voters strongly disagree with the tax. The liberals like to claim that it is a knee-jerk reaction by voters to reject new taxes and thus such votes are meaningless. Yet as Jason Mercier of the Washington Policy Center points out, that argument is factually incorrect. There have been 10 times in the past decade when voters have supported a tax increase in the advisory votes.

The Democrats want to do away with the advisory votes as they attempt to completely remove the public’s opinions from legislation.  State Senator Sam Hunt (D – Olympia) and State Representative Javier Valdez (D – Seattle) wrote in a recent Seattle Times op-ed that they support legislation (SB 5182), sponsored by Senator Patty Kuderer (D – Bellevue), which would end the advisory vote requirement.

This desire to silence any possible dissenting voices is not surprising coming from the Democrats.  For over 600 days, Governor Inslee has already eliminated every person but himself from the decision-making process on his “emergency orders”, which have impacted the lives of every Washington citizen.  Democrats “moved heaven and earth” to make sure voters could not repeal their new state income tax on capital gains through a referendum, by falsely declaring their tax an “emergency” (despite more than $3 billion in state reserves). The Democrats cut off all access to legislators this year by putting up a fence around the state capitol, to silence any protests as they were passing the state income tax and expensive climate bills.  Senator Hunt notoriously allowed only a couple of dozen citizens (out of 1,637 who signed up) to speak remotely for just one-minute (before he laughed as staff cut people off at exactly one minute) on a bill to end the governor’s one-man rule of the state.

And there’s more. Democrat legislators (including their 2020 nominee for Secretary of State Gael Tarleton) sponsored legislation (HB 2529) which would eliminate statewide elections in years ending in odd numbers, because not enough liberals can be bothered to vote in them.  When citizens voted to reduce car tabs (I-976), Governor Inslee and other Democrats filed lawsuit to overturn the decision of the public, and they refused repeated calls to pass legislation which reflected the people’s opinions.  Repeatedly, Washington State Democrats have clearly demonstrated they do not believe the public should be involved in deciding their fate in our democracy.  And yet Democrats wonder why people are resisting government mandates.  (Northwest Progressive Institute media release, Text of I-960, Washington Secretary of State elections results, Washington Policy Center memo, Seattle Times, Washington Legislature bill summary, Shift article,  TVW Senator Mark Mullet’s comments, and MyNorthwest)

The Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) filed a lawsuit against legislation passed by the Democrat-controlled legislature which increased the cost of buying homes — and is unconstitutional. The lawsuit asserts that HB 1277 is unconstitutional because it placed fees on documents which are not related to the processing of the records, and instead funds programs which constitutionally need to be funded with other revenue sources. The BIAW also contends that while three-quarters of Washington residents cannot afford to purchase an average new home, this new could fee add as much as $20,000 to home prices, thus forcing even more people out of the home market. (Building Industry of Washington’s media release and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

The grassroots effort to place an initiative on the ballot to eliminate the poorly designed Long-Term Care payroll tax has petitions available and is looking for volunteers to collect signatures.  Despite the many flaws in the legislation, Governor Inslee and Democrat legislators refuse to defy their big labor  backers at the Service Employees International Union by delaying the tax’s January 1^st implementation. That’s because it is more important to them to start collecting the new tax dollars than to actually provide the citizens with a law that meets citizens’ needs.  Initiative 1436 would strike down the expensive and faulty state-run long-term care insurance plan, by requiring that people first be asked to join the program and have the ability to leave it as well.  Click on the link to find out how you can help collect signatures to place the initiative before the legislature next year, which would likely mean citizens would decide if they want the tax. (Yes on 1436 and Shift’s Newsmaker Interview)

In a very, very lengthy article (2700 words), a longtime member of the region’s Democrat establishment criticized those on the extreme Left who have “lived in a bubble” and have radicalized Seattle’s politics. Former Stranger reporter and longtime Democrat political consultant Sandeep Kaushik pointed out that polls earlier this year showed that even normally liberal Seattle voters were growing increasingly upset by the city’s radical policies on crime, homelessness, and taxing employers. Despite overwhelming evidence that extreme liberal policies were failing, Seattle’s radicals isolated themselves and pushed ahead with their agenda, smug in their own righteousness.  Tuesday’s election was a clear sign from Seattle voters that even they are fed up with the failed extremist policies being imposed by the current liberal elites at city hall.

And, while it is good to see a member of the Democrat establishment finally take aim at the radical left, the question we have is, “What took you so long?”  When radicals attempted to kill police officers in Seattle’s East Precinct and destroyed random small businesses, Mr. Kaushik and his fellow establishment Democrats were quiet.  When the Seattle City Council and Democrat state legislators made Seattle and Washington State a safer place to be a criminal, there were no lengthy articles from within the Democrat establishment standing up for the public’s safety. Remember, not one elected Democrat legislator, statewide official, member of Congress, or U.S. Senator who represents Washington State residents has ever stood up against their party’s extremists by condemning the political violence conducted by liberal activists in Seattle during 2020.

While Kaushik is critical of the Twitter bubble the extremists have lived in, it must also be acknowledged that the Democrat establishment has enabled that bubble by not condemning the radical views of the extremists within their own party who live in it.  One article does not wipe the slate clean for all the Democrats’ silence in the past. (Post Alley)

The father of one the Black youths killed at the CHAZ/CHOP last year filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court against lame-duck Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, Socialist City Councilmember Kshama Sawant, and other city officials for the wrongful death of his son.  Horace Anderson’s suit (one of many already filed against the city for its actions during the 2020 violent riots and illegal takeover of portions of Seattle’s Capitol Hill) alleges that City of Seattle officials acted with “deliberate indifference” to the violent actions of liberal activists, and that they contributed to the death of his 19-year-old son Lorenzo. The lawsuit states that Councilmember Sawant encouraged liberal activists to break the laws and “undermine the safety of others” for political theater. The lawsuit follows a claim Anderson previously filed with the city for $3 million. (Seattle Times)

International District employers are hoping Seattle mayor-elect Bruce Harrell will reverse the city’s failed public safety policies, for they are currently losing money because people are afraid to visit their neighborhood. While one property owner has installed razor-wire fencing around his parking lot due to the increase in crime, neighborhood restaurant owners are losing customers. One restaurant owner said, “I lost like 90 percent of customers. I try to protect my restaurants. I lost so much money.” (KOMO News)

Small business employer Mike Lish slightly narrowed the deficit in his race to represent Spokane’s 3^rd District on the Spokane City Council.  Liberal political operative Zack Zappone saw his previous 579-vote lead reduced to 453, as restaurant owner Lish was able to close the gap to with ballots counted on Wednesday. Lish has 7,333 votes to Zappone’s 7,786.  It is estimated that between 7,000 – 10,000 more votes are left to be counted in the race. (Spokane County Elections and Shift)

The Spokane County Sheriff’s office bought electronic billboards in New York City’s Times Square to advertise job opportunities in their department. The ads are very colorful and inform viewers that the sheriff’s office is providing a $15,000 signing bonus to new recruits.  Unfortunately the ads misspell “Washington” by leaving out the “g.”  The sheriff’s office said their advertising company is fixing the typo.  (KOMO news)

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